Going Forward

               

As most of you know, we made a huge decision a few months ago to go from full-time to part-time Rv’ers.  This was in part due to some personal family responsibilities coupled with higher cost of living and some unexpected health issues.  We love our little “cottage” style house and it is just perfect for us.  I think we will truly enjoy having a base where we can come back to for our doctors, family and church. 

         

With that said, we never intend to “come off the road” entirely.  We love rving, the many many wonderful people we have met in this lifestyle and those we still intend to meet “down the road.”  We still intend to see as much of this wonderful country as we can.  So with all this in mind we have started doing a little bit of research on what our next rig should be.  We feel like we may be several months to a year or more away from the actual purchase but you never know.

                

         

We both feel at this time that we want to stay in the motor home family.  We have owned  pop-ups and travel trailers in our early camping years, but mainly we are only familiar with motor homes.  What we don’t want are the big 40 foot diesel pushers like we have owned in the past.  Since we won’t be living in the rig 24/7 we won’t need the storage that these units provide.  We loved our DPs and the power/ space they provided but we feel that won’t be necessary this time around.  So our initial research is going to be in the C or possibly B family.  There are several models out there that provide excellent gas mileage and ample space.  A few that we are interested in include the Roadtrek and Pleasure Way in the B family and the Born Free, Navion/View, and possible Lazy Daze in the C family.  We have some good friends, Gene & Judi Curp that have a Four Winds class C and it is very nice too. There are probably other units out there as nice, but this is where we are now. We want to keep our future rig in a shorter length because we want to be able to park in various places such as state and national parks and those quaint little out of the way lakeside spots.  Many of these makes offer models that get better than average fuel mileage.  So we begin our search along with some research and hopefully when the time is right….the right rig will be there for us.

           

                 

Mike Update:

   Mike returns to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully we will find out why his potassium continues to go up to the dangerous level.  After last weekend, we realize how scary this can be.  We are both hoping this can be something easily fixed.  It has been a long year working on getting his health straightened out.  The good news is…. his blood sugar was in the normal range so we “think” we have this problem taken care of!!  We so appreciate all the good wishes and prayers our blog friends as well as face book friends have sent our way.  We value each and every one of you.  We have some new followers and we want to welcome you to our always evolving journey in this great lifestyle.  We hope you will find something useful or at least humorous along the way. 

                 

A Bird Kind of a Day

                            

Yesterday Mike and I took a trip about 40 miles northeast of LaGrange to Peachtree City, Georgia.  Our mission was to visit Wild Birds Unlimited.

              

We discovered our first WBU in Columbus, Georgia several years ago but that store has since closed.  If you love birding, which Mike and I really do, you would love browsing around in one of their stores.  There are over 277 of these franchise stores located throughout North America. You can visit their website at www.wbu.com.   The owners are certified birding specialist able to give advice on diet, habitat and most anything pertaining to wild birds. 

Our trip today was to purchase food for our backyard birds.  We have actually found that this food is no more expensive than the food we used to purchase at Wal-Mart and Tractor Supply since it is pure with very little to no filler added.  It goes much further and the birds really, really like it.  We tend to feed the Supreme food, shelled peanuts, premium sunflower seeds (black oil), Cranberry seed cylinder and Supreme with nuts seed cylinder and Jim’s Birdacious Bark Butter.

             

             

                    

We have purchased our pole systems and all our feeders/houses from them.  Three of our feeders are made from Eco Tough material which won’t crack, fade or rot and comes with a lifetime  guarantee.  Needless to say these cost a bit more so we only have three at this time.

               

                      

We have recently started experimenting with the seed cylinders and really like them.  They last a lot longer and the birds love them.  We have also added, last year, Jim’s Birdacious Bark Butter to our feeding lineup.     Smells a lot like peanut butter (no, I haven’t tried any) and you spread it on the bark of a tree, piece of wood or anything it will stick to.  We have found all our birds love it but especially the woodpeckers.

                    

We currently have a nest of baby wrens in one of our houses.  Boy are they busy going in and out, and the little ones are beginning to chirp quite loudly.    Soon we will get to see them emerge and fly off to begin their life.  We still have several Cardinals but not as many as earlier in the season.  Blue Jays are coming around, mockingbirds, Titmouse, Chickadees, Wrens, Purple Finches, Mourning Doves and our host of Woodpeckers.

             

                     

             

             

It was a great day for us and we hope you have a truly wonderful weekend doing whatever makes you happy and brings a smile to your face!! 

CICADAS

                                      

Those of you that were fortunate enough to head north might have missed a 13 year phenomenon when the Cicada - The Great Southern Brood - emerges from their 13 year hiding underground. When the soil reaches the magic temperature of 65 degrees the Cicada nymphs will emerge, crawl up into trees, shed their skin and then begin the most annoying noise making you have ever heard. At this point they are searching for their mate. This horribly loud noise begins early in the day and continues until dusk. The sound is deafening.

         

         

Mike and I love sitting out on our patio in the early evening and just enjoy watching our birds as they come to the feeders. The noise emitted by these little creatures is so loud that it literally drove us inside. When you hear them from a distance (if that ever happens) it sounds like a machine running constantly. I did a little research on these little visitors and found out that in mature trees (older areas) their noise can reach 85 decibels. A jet flying overhead can reach 60 to 70 decibels. Now that’s loud!!

           

Although they are harmless they have a tendency to fly or dive bomb right at you. I sometimes wonder if they can see where they are going. Because they don’t hang around for an extended amount of time the loud decibels will not damage hearing.

They will remain with us for about four to six weeks. During this time they will be searching for their mate, they will mate and the female will lay her eggs. Then they will die.

       

The joy just continues…..when they die they begin to decay and with this step in their life cycle comes a horrible stench. So even though annoying at times we have been able to experience a unique natural phenomena of nature. See ya in 2024...Nature is amazing!!

       

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do. ~Michel de Montaigne

HP To the Rescue

 

Several weeks ago I opened my laptop and discovered that the LCD screen had this unusual design showing on it.  That design turned out to be a crack on the inside.  The computer had not been dropped, stepped on or mistreated in any way but there it was bigger than life…..cracked. 

        

                                       Downtown Nashville Music City

               

             

We got on the phone to HP customer service and described the situation.  They immediately responded with the scenario of damage brought on by the customer.  I immediately explained to them that we had not done anything to the computer.  The recommendation was to package it up and send it in.  They would look at it to determine the cause of the damage (they weren’t believing us at this point) and either fix it under warranty or call us and let us know the cost for them to fix it.  They weren’t very optimistic and neither were we.  So off went my laptop to the HP hospital.  We waited for the dreaded call telling us we needed a new LCD screen and what the cost would be.  We already heard it would be around $400.00. 

During our waiting period we began to shop around to see if it would be more cost effective to just purchase a new one.  We could beat the $400.00 price but not with the system options on our current one.  So we continued to wait.  About 8 days into our wait we noticed on e-mail that our laptop had been shipped.  You know, the tracking number and approximate delivery date.  Wow….we had dodged a bullet.

       

The laptop arrived in better shape than when it left us…..complete with a new LCD screen without the creative design.  I can only speculate that when they saw the laptop and discovered that there REALLY wasn’t any damage to the cover and that we truly hadn’t done anything to it.   You gotta love the warranties!!! HP came through and fixed our LCD at no charge to us…it restored a little faith in that company.

       

We have returned from our trip north…..not north enough however!   We spent the greater part of May in Nashville. The temps were hot and the cicadas loud (louder than in Georgia).    Mike is from Nashville and we always visit with family while there.  While we were there this time we got to visit with the newest member of the family…..Samuel Patrick Swift born May 26th in Murfreesboro, Tn. 

                             

He is just adorable!!  Kimberly, the mom, is our niece.  Congratulations Sam, Kimberly and Kayla (the big sister)!! 

MEMORIAL DAY

THANKS TO ALL OUR FALLEN HEROES AND THE SACRIFICES THEY AS WELL AS THEIR FAMILIES MADE FOR OUR FREEDOMS!

We are still in Tennessee and many times have not had internet connections.  Hope to catch up with all our blogging friends/comments very soon.  We should be heading back to Georgia tomorrow.  Time to reconnect with those wonderful doctors.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!!!!!

                                           

A Trip to The Parthenon…no not that one!

            

            

Yesterday we went to Centennial Park in Nashville where we toured the Parthenon. In 1897, Nashville undertook the construction of a full-scale replica of the Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition. The building was so popular the city decided to leave the temporary building standing. In 1920, it was decided to reconstruct the crumbling building with permanent materials, and to create a complete replica of the original Greek temple, both inside and out…it re-opened to the public in 1931.

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, stands in the same place where the original once did in the ancient temple.

         

She stands 41’ 10” tall. In Athena’s right hand is Nike, the goddess of victory, preparing to crown Athena.   Nike stands 6’4” himself.

        

The Athenians believe Athena protected them from annihilation and granted them their victory over the Persian Empire in 480 BC. The shield which is 15’ in diameter portrays the head of Medusa in the middle.

        

        

The sculptures on the east Piedmont of the Parthenon depict the mythological birth of Athena.

        

The sculptures on the West Piedmont depict the mythological contest between Athena and her uncle Poseidon to determine who would become the patron of Attica and its capital city.

        

After the visit to the Parthenon, we ate a late lunch at Which Wich. It’s a unique sub shop. The sandwiches are numbered by the type sandwich, and you pick up a bag that matches that number.

        

        

Then you write down on that bag how you want your sandwich done and all the toppings and condiments. You turn in that bag, pay for your meal and they bring the sandwich to you in that itemized bag. It was a neat experience and the sandwich was very good.

We are really enjoying our time in Tennessee.

A Birthday, Triple D Experience, and a Hike

 

It felt good to get back on the road again after health and personal opportunities have tied us down a bit. Gerri and I took Stephen with us to Nashville to spend a week and see some sights and visit my mom, my brother and his wife Carollyn.

      

     

     

      Wednesday was Stephen’s birthday so we took him to the place of his choice for lunch. It was Martins Barbecue Joint…which also happens to be a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant. It is actually located in Nolensville, Tennessee which is about 8 miles south of Nashville. We each ordered something different so we could share the varieties offered at the restaurant. Stephen got the Red Neck Taco…pulled barbecue on top of a cornbread pancake with slaw and other spices and sauces on it. Gerri ordered the pulled barbecue platter and I had the beef brisket platter. Mom also had the pulled pork platter. Boy did we walk away full!

                 

       Later that afternoon, Gerri, Stephen and I went to Radnor Lake State Natural Area to walk around the lake on a really neat trail. Radnor Lake is an 85 acre lake surrounded by scenic areas and hiking trails.

      

       

There is a diversity of natural habitats and has some of the highest hills in the Nashville Basin. Several years ago, you could drive around the lake, but it is now closed to be a “natural” area full of hiking trails. Yesterday the weather was great for our hike through the trails and around the lake. It was a great way to walk of lunch and just a grand day!

      

      

      

We ended the day with a cake to conclude the birthday celebration.

      

Stephen prefers the decadent cake to the traditional birthday cake, so we got the Chocolate Lovers Delight cake from Publix. Man, was it good, rich and fattening…time for another hike today!